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It won’t be the same kind of Halloween, of course. Bombings and anthrax—with who knows what to come—replace goblins and ghouls. We fear the consequences of what we ourselves have created, as seen in several current and upcoming theatrical offerings.
Take Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” now at The Powerhouse Performing Arts Center. “Technology gives birth to potential horrors,” said Norwalk’s J. Kevin Smith, who has the role of Dr. Victor Frankenstein. “By creating the monster, Victor wreaked havoc, although that wasn’t his purpose. Victor plays God and struggles with determining what is good, what is evil, which is always in flux.” Shelley subtitled her tale “The Modern Prometheus.” For Smith, “It’s a classic, a mythological, universal story that warns us to be careful. We can’t ignore what we create.”
Inadvertently creating evil from good also informs “Jekyll and Hyde” the musical now in Westchester and coming to Downtown Cabaret in February. In the story, the respected Dr. Jekyll concocts a potion that causes a personality switch, transforming a noble scientist into a murderous monster. Or take the case of Lizzie Borden, the shy spinster who possibly chopped up her parents in Massachusetts. Now the subject of a new Goodspeed musical, Lizzie, although acquitted of the crime, has become the poster woman for repressed depravity to hypocrisy. Our noble
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forefathers came here to escape religious persecution. But, anxious to form a theocracy, they began their own ill-fated faith-based initiative, in turn persecuting those whose beliefs differed from theirs. Capturing that madness, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a short story, “Young Goodman Brown,” the basis for “Salem,” a new play opening this week in New York. Its depiction of people caught up in what they believe is the Devil’s work foreshadows the famous New England witch trials, that strange 17th century aberration. Drawing an analogy between the trials and the 20th century’s Un-American Affairs hearings that verbally tortured people into ratting on former friends, Arthur Miller wrote “The Crucible.” Under Weston actor Maureen Anderman’s direction, the tragedy shows up in November.
Another Hawthorne admirer was Herman Melville, whose masterpiece, “Moby Dick” is 150 years old this month. The following is taken verbatim from the first chapter in which the hero, Ishmael (also the name of the biblical outcast from whom Arabs believe they are descended), places his life in context:
“Grand Contested Election for the Presidency of the United States. Whaling Voyage by One Ishmael. Bloody Battle in Afghanistan.”
How’s that for Halloween fright?
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